There are two main methods of connecting the armature winding to the commutator segments of electric motors. One is to provide a mechanical connection. The other is to connect the winding wire to a tang using a thermal connection process such as a fusing process. Carbon segment commutators are becoming more commonly used. These comprise a commutator base of insulating material, a plurality of commutator terminals, each of which comprises a terminal portion and a contact portion, and a plurality of carbon segments formed on the base and over the contact portions, respectively, of the terminals. The heat generated by fusing the winding wire to the terminal portions of the commutator terminals is necessarily high in order to burn off the wire insulation and this heat will be transferred to the connection between the graphite and the metal contact portion with consequent risk of damage to this connection. On the other hand mechanical connections which rely on locating the winding wire into narrow slots in the terminal portions of the commutator terminals require a range of different commutator terminals to connect to the different wire diameters used and this requires different tooling and bears the risk of mixing the components.
The present invention seeks to overcome these drawbacks.